The Fall 2013 issue of the LA Forum Newsletter, picks up a question from Lewis Mumford “What is a City?” In 1937 he defined the city as a drama—the pluralism of social actions, functions, communities, and structures. And nearly eight decades later, the answers still seem fluid and provisional. Today, we question if Los Angeles needs to aspire to an imported urbanism as singular and frictionless as a High Line, and ask for more than a low risk, feel-good parklet program, the very program described with all its interruptions by Martina Dolejsova. An excerpt from Aris Janigian’s This Angelic Land reminds us that even as the 1992 riots fade into history their intense complexity remains with us as a constant backdrop. Board member Orhan Ayyuce’s interview with Kyong Park considers many cities and, in his op-ed, board member Duane McLemore shines a light on the taut relationship between community, cultural programming, and private funding.

Untitled centerfold by Anthony Carfello, with translation by Sergio Bromberg